The Road of Death
By Geosi Gyasi

the meat that scattered
across the road was human

flesh after all. that morning, 
the ruling party had come to

our village to launch 
a newly-tarred road.

before the road,
was a dying footpath
 
like the wrinkled skin
of a blind old woman
 
with a tearful
inscription in her heart:

blacken.my.grey.hair.before.i.die

we were watching from
our blue kiosk,
 
my sister 
& i when a fleet

of cars lined up the road
from the center of the village

to the launching grounds. for
the first time in my life, 

i saw a Rolls-Royce, the car
in which the president was

driven in. my sister stood 
in surprise and thought 

it was only Queen Elizabeth
who owned one.

the riders motorcycles
led the day
 
into a misfortune
over the newly-tarred

road that fueled the people’s 
anger just a month into 

elections—ɛkwan na yɛ bɛ di,
they rolled their tongues to

fold away the cursed road
which caused the clouds

to knock on the doors of heaven
for the poor soul of the village girl

whose blood like Jesus, poured
onto the cross to wash us anew

from the sins of our leaders
whose eyes were firmly gripped

onto the glories of now.
they painted the township

with the colour of a chameleon.
my sister could not swallow

the horrible fate the
village girl had to endure

from the riders acrobatics before
the president stood out of the car.

her head pounded into a forbidden 
fufu & her soul burst out with

a loud voice like that of the last 
breath on the cross of Calvary.

we stood outside watching 
like a movie ’til mother whisked

us away. that night,
the whole village wailed
 
for the new road of death.

Geosi Gyasi is a book blogger, poet, and interviewer. His work has appeared or forthcoming in Galway Review, Grey Sparrow Journal, Indiana Voice Journal, Silver Birch PRESS and Juked. He is the author of the forthcoming book, Geosi Interviews Fifty Writers Worldwide (2016) from Lamar University Literary Press in Texas, U.S. He is the winner of the 2015 Ake/Air France Prize for Prose.